Tag Archives: bottle feeding

Disaster!

Posted in Feeding by

 

Last night one of my worst nightmares became a reality … my perfect prep machine died! I am in shock and mourning at the loss of this indispensable piece of equipment.  I just don’t know what happened. One feed it was fine, the next it was gone. I feel so lost!

The Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep machine was probably the most useful piece of baby equipment that we owned. After struggling with breastfeeding with baby boy and moving onto bottles, I found it difficult as he fed on demand still. Bottles are recommended to be made fresh each time and not in advance so baby boy would wake hungry but then have to wait roughly 30 minutes for a bottle to be made and cooled to the correct temperature. This was a nightmare, especially at night. In a sleep deprived state I was searching google for alternative ways and came across the perfect prep machine. We bought it the next day and haven’t looked back since! It was a lifesaver, making bottles to the perfect temperature in under 2 minutes. We used it everyday until baby boy moved onto cows milk.

When baby girl was born I was determined to breastfeed successfully however once again that didn’t work out (details to follow in another post). The trusty perfect prep machine came out again and has been used since – until last night!

It was the worst possible time for it to break. Mr K had gone to the football leaving me to do the bedtime routine on my own. I was completely prepared. I had recorded ‘In the Night Garden’ the previous evening so that I could time it perfectly with baby girl’s feed. She would then go to sleep and I could put baby boy to bed. However, disaster struck! I ended up with a screaming baby on my hands who wanted a feed, a toddler who after his programme had finished couldn’t understand why he wasn’t going upstairs to bed (Mummy now had to feed baby 30 minutes late) and a mummy who was crying and desperately wishing she was on a cruise around the Bahamas! It was not a pleasant scene!

Once I had finally settled baby girl and baby boy was asleep I took a look at the machine in the hope that I could revive it. Sadly though my perfect prep machine has left us for electrical heaven. I will miss you old boy, you served us well! 

Now, anyone know of any good offers on a new perfect prep machine?!

Sharing the feeding – Haberman Suckle Feeder *Review

Posted in Feeding by

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When baby boy was a newborn he suffered terribly with colic and wind. Breastfeeding hadn’t worked out for us and bottle feeding wasn’t going much better. Baby boy would cough, splutter and dribble so much milk that we would often have to change his clothes after a feed. Within half an hour he would be in visible pain. We later found out that he was suffering from silent reflux alongside the colic!

It was at the Baby and Toddler Show at Event City in Manchester that we found a solution to our feeding problem. I was walking past the Haberman stand and caught the end of a demonstration. The demonstrator was showing a young woman a bottle. It didn’t look like any other bottle I had seen before. It was a Haberman Suckle Feeder and with its curvy lines and bright green detailing it looked slightly space age. I was intrigued and wondered what was so amazing about this bottle. The answer was impressive and so I bought 6 of them.

The Haberman Suckle Feeder has an innovative design that uses a closed teat. This means that once milk enters the teat it does not flow back into the bottle unless it is released back in by you and so the teat stays full at any angle. This meant that baby boy could be fed in a more upright position which helped him to feed more comfortably. The closed teat system is also good for reducing wind and colic by ensuring that air bubbles are filtered back into the bottle. The really good thing about the Haberman Suckle Feeder though is the way in which is encourages a baby to feed.

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Baby boy had to use his jaw, tongue and mouth to actually suckle the teat to get the milk. This meant that he could stop and rest when he wanted without his mouth still being flooded with milk. Unless he was suckling no milk came out. I could hold the bottle upside down and not a drip would escape! It is this technology that makes it perfect for parents who want to combine breast and bottle feeding (be that expressed milk or formula). Babies do not have to learn a new way of feeding. They use the same suckle action as they do on the breast. The bottle also allows for the flow of milk to be varied just by turning the bottle. No need for different sized teats! If you want Dad to share the feeding without confusing baby then this could be the bottle for you.

From the first use of this bottle we noticed a huge improvement in baby boys feeding. He no longer coughed and spluttered because he was in control of his feeding. It was a lifesaver.

Baby boy is now no longer using bottles but I would have no hesitation buying these again in the future if I needed to.

All thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.


Image credit – http://www.habermanbaby.com